Eclipse activities filled Children’s House on Monday. Students arrived eager to understand the event, prepared with eclipse glasses or even some pinhole viewers made at home. Several students made their own viewers in art, using cardboard boxes and tinfoil, while others made water color paintings.
At circle, the teachers demonstrated how the earth, moon, and sun would all line up to make it appear that the moon covered the sun. We sang eclipse songs, including, “The Earth Goes ‘Round The Sun,” “Mr. Sun,” and “Twinkle Twinkle”. For snack, Michael made “Eclipse Pancakes” for the children, using a blueberry batter for the moon, and turmeric batter for the sun.
Once outside, the children took breaks from playing, taking turns wearing the glasses and looking through the various viewers to see the eclipse. The children rode bikes and cars down the pathway behind the school in the shade of the trees, where they observed the eclipse in the shadows cast through the trees.
The maximum point of eclipse was scheduled right at lunch, so we ate lunch outside, and continued our observations. Some comments were: “The sun is just a fingernail!” “It’s darker!” “The moon almost covered it.”